Tapping on Bass Guitar Lesson #9
================================
Ian Stephenson
ian@ohm.york.ac.uk
Last lesson one of the things we looked as was the Van Halen "Summer Nights"
lick:
|-----------------|----------------------------------------------------|
|-----------------|----------------------------------------------------|
|----------5-4-0--|-7-4-0--4-7-12-/14-\12--7---------------------------|
|-----------------|----------------------------------------------------|
T s s
We're going to start off this time by developing this idea of right hand slides.
Start of with a simple one fret slide:
bO
-O- --- -O-
--- --- ---
--- --- ---
__
|--/--\---------------------------------
| \ | .
|-12-/--13-\-12-----| |---@--|--------------------------------
|-------------------| | / .
|-------------------| |-----/---------------------------------
|-------------------| | /
T |---/-----------------------------------
|
|---------------------------------------
Make sure that you can play this in time, at pretty much any tempo. If your no
carefull this could turn into a sort of reflex action where you have little
control over how long you spend on each note.
Now try sliding two frets:
O
-O- --- -O-
--- --- ---
--- --- ---
__
|--/--\---------------------------------
| \ | .
|-12-/--14-\-12-----| |---@--|--------------------------------
|-------------------| | / .
|-------------------| |-----/---------------------------------
|-------------------| | /
T |---/-----------------------------------
|
|---------------------------------------
The control becomes more important here, as you have to make sure that you go
from the low note to the high note without overshooting, at the tempo YOU
require, not the speed your fingers want to. Sometime you'll want the note
between to be heard in passing, other times you want to move between the two
notes as quickly as possible.
Finally try a minor third:
-bO-
-O- ---- -O-
--- ---- ---
--- ---- ---
__
|--/--\---------------------------------
| \ | .
|-12-/--15-\-12-----| |---@--|--------------------------------
|-------------------| | / .
|-------------------| |-----/---------------------------------
|-------------------| | /
T |---/-----------------------------------
|
|---------------------------------------
Once you've got the up slides, try sliding DOWN these intervals:
|-13-\--12-/-13-----| |-14-\--12-/-14-----| |-15-\--12-/-15-----|
|-------------------| |-------------------| |-------------------|
|-------------------| |-------------------| |-------------------|
|-------------------| |-------------------| |-------------------|
Now lets put those slides into a musical context:
This is the bass/rhythm part to Satriani's "Always with me, always with you".
|-------------------|------------------|------------------|---------------|
|o------13/14\13----|------13/14\13----|------11/13\11----|-----9/11\9---o|
|o---14----------14-|---14----------14-|---11----------11-|---9--------9-o|
|--7----------------|-7----------------|-0----------------|-2-------------|
|----------------|------------------|-----------------|---------------||
|------9/11\9----|------11/13\11----|-------9/11\9----|-----8/11\8----||
|----9--------9--|---11----------11-|----9----------9-|---9--------9--||
|--4-------------|-0----------------|-2---------------|-2-------------||
In actuall performance, I probably would only slide the first two bars, and
then use what we've called the right hand 9th position to play the rest.
However the bigger intervals should make good practise :-).
So far I would guess that you've been using your middle (or index) finger to do
most of the work, so go back, and work through the examples using each finger
in turn.
We can now put these multi-digital skills into practise on the Stu Hamm riff
from "Flow My Tears" (Free Radio Albermuth(?sp?)).
|--------11----------19-|\16-------------14------||
|o-----9----17----------|----14-------12--------o||
|o---7---------17/19----|-------15\14-----------o||
|--0--------------------|-------------------8-7--||
p ^----^ ^-^
left Hand Left
[transcription originaly by George Dibos. I've adapted it for Non-Ex-Factor
Basses - Kubicki Users can drop the piece 1 tone, to return it to the original
key]
The open string is played as a pull of following the repeat - just slap it
(gently!) with your thumb first time around.
I've marked the left hand parts, the rest is played by using three fingers of
your right hand. Use your index finger for the A string, middle finger for the
D string, and third finger for the G string. It's quite easy - just make sure
you place all those sldes cleanly, moving quickly (but NOT rushing) between the
notes with no overshoot.
keep practising...
Ian
LESSON POINTS: Right hand Slides
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